Medical items used in the treatment of patients often need to be tracked. Such medical items may include medications as well as medical devices and appliances. Such medical items come in various forms and sizes. For example, medications may be in the form of pills, capsules or caplets which are orally ingested. Alternatively, medications may be in liquid form. Liquid medications may be ingested, injected or applied topically to the patient. Similarly, medical devices vary from tiny machines which are implantable in the patient to larger items such as syringes, suction tubes and the like.
In the past the use of medical items by patients has been tracked manually. Medical providers would maintain paper records of inventories of medical items. As medical items were used for or by a patient, the use would be recorded. Paperwork was generated both for purposes of tracking the patient's treatment as well as for inventory and billing purposes. The manual tracking of medical items by patients particularly in large facilities became complex.
In recent years automated systems for controlling, dispensing and tracking the use of medical items have been developed. An example of such a system is shown in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/361,783 filed Dec. 16, 1994 and which is owned by the Assignee of the present invention. Such automated systems enable a medical technician to avoid much of the paperwork associated with tracking the use of medications, maintaining adequate inventories and billing patients. In such systems information concerning patients, medical items prescribed for the patients and medical items available for use by patients are stored in a data store. A user of the system, which is generally a health care provider such as a nurse or physician, uses a display terminal to select a patient and the medical items for the patient. In response to the user's input at the display terminal, the requested medical items are dispensed from a dispenser. The health care provider takes the item for use by the patient.
In the system owned by the Assignee of the present invention, the dispense of a medical item for a patient is recorded for several purposes. Information representative of the use of the item is stored in correlation with the patient's medical information for tracking the course of treatment and recovery. The use of the medical item is also recorded for billing purposes. This enables the patient's account to be charged for the value of the medical item. The use of the medical item is also recorded for purposes of tracking available inventories at various locations. This is done to assure that adequate supplies of medical items are available for dispense where they are needed. The disclosure of U.S. Ser. No. 08/361,783 is incorporated herein by reference as if fully rewritten herein.
The use of automated systems for dispensing medical items has resulted in a need for dispensers which can dispense medical items accurately and reliably in response to electrical signals. Such dispensers optimally should be capable of dispensing a wide range of medical items having various sizes and configurations.
Medical science is advancing rapidly. As science advances new and different types of medical devices and medications become available. Dispensers for medical devices must optimally be adaptable to new and different configurations of medical devices. Dispensers must be frequently refilled. Therefore it is desirable for such dispensers to be readily reloaded. Inventory of the items in dispensers must be frequently taken. There is a need for facilitating visual verification of the type and quantity of items which are in inventory in a dispenser mechanism.
Dispensers which are capable of dispensing various types of medical items may present difficulties because certain items are fragile and subject to breakage. It is sometimes desirable to dispense several medical items together as part of a kit. Such a system is disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/756,623 filed Nov. 26, 1996 which is owned by the Assignee of the present invention and the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. Alternatively, health care providers may wish to dispense several different types of medical items in rapid succession, in which case several items will be delivered into a delivery location. If a fragile item is dispensed along with other items there is a possibility of breakage. Breakage is undesirable as it not only wastes a valuable medical item but may also contaminate the dispenser and may place it out of service until it can be cleaned. Thus, there is a need for medication dispensers that can dispense several types of medical items including fragile items together while minimizing the risk of breakage.
There is also a need to carefully monitor the use of narcotics. Steps are required by law to minimize the risk of theft of such items. It is desirable for medication dispensers to provide enhanced security which minimizes the risk that medical items may be taken from the dispenser through improper means. While enhanced security is desirable, authorized personnel who replenish medications or who service the dispenser should have ready access to the medications and dispenser mechanisms within the dispenser.
Thus, there exists a need for a dispenser for medical items that is capable of dispensing a wide variety of medical items, that reliably and accurately dispenses such items in response to electrical signals, that is easy to use and which provides enhanced security for preventing unauthorized access.